Solved Unable to use built-in ASUS recovery partition

Ok, so I've extracted the WinRE.wim and install.wim files from the Recovery and Restore partitions respectively, now where should I put these? Can I simply put them on the root of an NTFS formatted USB stick, and reboot into the recovery environment? Will it then detect the USB as an installation media?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 - 3630QM, 2.4 GHz
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 740M
    Browser
    Google Chrome
Format flash drive to fat32. ( max size per file is 4gb with fat32) .Put correct directories on flash drive.

Put winre.wim and install.wim in the "sources" folder.

I will do the directory structure for you and post it up in a zip. Might be about an hour as I have to go out just now.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Format flash drive to fat32. ( max size per file is 4gb with fat32) .Put correct directories on flash drive.

Put winre.wim and install.wim in the "sources" folder.

I will do the directory structure for you and post it up in a zip. Might be about an hour as I have to go out just now.

Ok thanks for that :)
However the install.wim file is larger than 4GB, about 13GB, is there a tool to split it into segments of 4GB each and will that work?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 - 3630QM, 2.4 GHz
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 740M
    Browser
    Google Chrome
Qub1, here is how to split it. As to how to make it work, SIW2 will have to answer that. He is much smarter on all this.

Splitting an Image

Found this one on how to do it with DISM: Split a Windows Image (.swm) File to Span Across Multiple DVDs

This wim/swm stuff gets confusing. The files on my flash are 4gb swm files. Pretty sure you have to have number sequenced file. Mine are named install.swm through install8.swm. I guess that is where setting up the directory structure comes in.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
Qub1, here is how to split it. As to how to make it work, SIW2 will have to answer that. He is much smarter on all this.

Splitting an Image

Found this one on how to do it with DISM: Split a Windows Image (.swm) File to Span Across Multiple DVDs

This wim/swm stuff gets confusing. The files on my flash are 4gb swm files. Pretty sure you have to have number sequenced file. Mine are named install.swm through install8.swm. I guess that is where setting up the directory structure comes in.

Thanks for that, I'll have to download the WAIK (for the imagex tool to split the file), it'll take a while since it is 1.7GB in size.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 - 3630QM, 2.4 GHz
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 740M
    Browser
    Google Chrome
Qub1, here is how to split it. As to how to make it work, SIW2 will have to answer that. He is much smarter on all this.

Splitting an Image

Found this one on how to do it with DISM: Split a Windows Image (.swm) File to Span Across Multiple DVDs

This wim/swm stuff gets confusing. The files on my flash are 4gb swm files. Pretty sure you have to have number sequenced file. Mine are named install.swm through install8.swm. I guess that is where setting up the directory structure comes in.

Thanks for that, I'll have to download the WAIK (for the imagex tool to split the file), it'll take a while since it is 1.7GB in size.

Lol, I was just going to say it seems you need imageX to do it right. I'm learning something here too.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
Qub1, here is how to split it. As to how to make it work, SIW2 will have to answer that. He is much smarter on all this.

Splitting an Image

Found this one on how to do it with DISM: Split a Windows Image (.swm) File to Span Across Multiple DVDs

This wim/swm stuff gets confusing. The files on my flash are 4gb swm files. Pretty sure you have to have number sequenced file. Mine are named install.swm through install8.swm. I guess that is where setting up the directory structure comes in.

Thanks for that, I'll have to download the WAIK (for the imagex tool to split the file), it'll take a while since it is 1.7GB in size.

Lol, I was just going to say it seems you need imageX to do it right. I'm learning something here too.

Oh no I didn't mean thanks for that in a negative way, lol, I really did mean thanks :) Its just a shame that they have you download a package 1.7 GB in size for just one single tool.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 - 3630QM, 2.4 GHz
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 740M
    Browser
    Google Chrome
I didn't take it negative at all. I just found the imageX thing myself and came back here and saw your post is all. We're fine. :)

Sure hope you get this figured out. I think SIW2 is your best hope.

Agree about the large download for one tool.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
You don't need to d/l the whole thing LOL. Never mind, he has probably done it by now. I am just knocking up a .cmd file to create a usable bootable wim and the directory structure which needs to be copied to the flash drive.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
You don't need to d/l the whole thing LOL. Never mind, he has probably done it by now. I am just knocking up a .cmd file to create a usable bootable wim and the directory structure which needs to be copied to the flash drive.

Yea, I found a site that has a utility to download just the essentials. Don't know if OK to post the link here though. I PM'd him but probably too late. You're a good guy for taking the time to do this.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
You can split an image by using the DISM /split-image command..already in Windows 8.

I still do not understand why the reagentc /info command would not run. It usually works even if the /enable and /disable ones will not. Maybe if I had the info I asked for, I would know...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
You can split an image by using the DISM /split-image command..already in Windows 8.

I still do not understand why the reagentc /info command would not run. It usually works even if the /enable and /disable ones will not. Maybe if I had the info I asked for, I would know...

I think what you asked for got lost in all the back and forth on this one. I'm sure watching it closely as would like to see if this can be made to work. Could save the old bacon in many situations. I probably didn't help with my babble.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
I think the EASEUS partition manager caused all these problem. It changes the partition type of recovery partition to OEM. So it is not working for you. You need to change partition id of recovery drive manually.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo Ideapad Y500
    CPU
    i7-3632QM
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GT650M 2GB DDR5
    Screen Resolution
    1980 X 1080
    Internet Speed
    256 kbps
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
I think what you asked for got lost in all the back and forth on this one. I'm sure watching it closely as would like to see if this can be made to work. Could save the old bacon in many situations. I probably didn't help with my babble.
Probably so, but it is interesting to see what is being tried. While trying to figure out what SIW2 is doing, I learned you can rename Winre.wim to boot.wim and use it to boot.

I did try putting the install files on a recovery drive manually once but the Reset could not find the image. I assumed it was because the reagent.xml file was missing or incorrect.

I suppose the OP would know about the EaseUS thing ariftwister is referring to. It is easy to check the ID of the recovery drive.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
d/l this:

slightly different versions.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dd2jecmia3s0x00/RE64v7i.zip

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rzaxya9kuip47xk/RE86v7i.zip


extract like this:


WINRE64-0.jpg

you will have this:


winre64-1.jpg

put your 8.0 winre here:


winre64-2.jpg


Run as admin on cmd file:


winre64-3.jpg




It will ask if you want to d/l recuva to be included. Up to you.

It also asks if you want to make an iso. Up to you.

After it has finished ( about 2 mins) you will see a folder called iso.

Copy all the folders from inside that (not the iso folder itself - all the folders from inside it ) onto your fat32 formatted flash drive.

ISO-FOLDER-CONTENTS.jpg

Then copy your install.wim, or install.swm files into the sources folder on the flash drive.

That's it.

Boot it up and you will get a menu. To install from .swm files, click the SWMINSTALL button on the menu. Browse to the Install.swm file. You will want to select the image called Push Button Reset or similar, it is probably image 2.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
WOW, thank you so much! I can't thank you enough for creating this tool and putting your time in it, and I'm sure its use won't just be lost on me, looks like it could help a lot of people facing similar problems! Anyway I'm going to try it out now and I'll report back with the results.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 - 3630QM, 2.4 GHz
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 740M
    Browser
    Google Chrome
Anxious to see your results. This is going straight into my folder of goodies. Will help a lot of people if it works.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
Hey, I'm back and I'm happy to say the problem is resolved :D

I used your tool and it worked great, until I selected my install.wim file. It said that the file contained multiple recovery images (or something similar) and it gave me the option to choose from a list of about 4 images. I didn't know which one to choose so I decided to come back to the forums to ask. And then I saw the post ariftwister made. EaseUS had set the type of my recovery partitions from Recovery to OEM, and so Windows had trouble finding them (since it was looking for a Recovery partition).

So I did the following to fix it:
- Open CMD
- Type diskpart
- Type list disk
- Select the disk with the recovery partition, using select disk # (mine was select disk 0)
- Type list partition
- Select the recovery partition, using select partition # (mine was select partition 6). The partition has OEM listed as its type.
- Then I used set id=27 to set the id to that of Recovery, but since my drive was GPT and not MBR, it didn't work.
- So, I did some Googling and found that for a GPT disk I had to use set id=DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
- So I did set id=DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
- It succeeded, so I again typed list partition and it was now listed as Recovery!
- Rebooted into the Recovery Environment, and it detected my Restore partition and allowed me to reset.

I couldn't be happier :)
And also thanks to everyone for the help, and even though I didn't fully use your tool SIW, I'm sure it can help others a lot, and I really appreciate you making it.

I'm going to restore now, and if it succeeds I'll come back here and mark this thread as solved.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 - 3630QM, 2.4 GHz
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GeForce 740M
    Browser
    Google Chrome
So, I did some Googling and found that for a GPT disk I had to use set id=DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC

Can be found for example here.

Sample: Configure UEFI/GPT-Based Hard Drive Partitions by Using Windows PE and DiskPart

rem == 1. Windows RE tools partition ===============
create partition primary size=300
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows RE tools"
assign letter="T"
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001

rem === 5. Recovery image partition ================
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery image"
assign letter="R"
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo G580
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3230M
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, standard user account
    Other Info
    UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8 product key.
Way to go SIW2, :thumb:, and you others that helped. :thumbsup: This stuff could be tutorial material, or maybe a sticky thread. I dare say there are a few other people that ended up in a very similar situation.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
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